A four-year graduate studio from Texas A&M joined our Dallas office for a presentation and tour by a few of our office leaders. Their particular studio is entirely healthcare focused. Ben Crawford, Curt Parde and Darden Beckham led the discussion and tour.

For all of you aspiring architects, engineers, planners, landscape architects, interior designers, lighting designers, graphic designers and more: If you love design and want to work with great people for what we think are the world’s best clients (OK, we’re a little biased), we want to meet you. Here’s the schedule for HOK’s upcoming campus visits. If you’re on campus, please come out and introduce yourself! We’d love to get to know you.

In the first of a year-long Careers by Design series, Senior Human Resources Manager Stacy Krell talked to the St. Louis office about “Taking Charge of Your Career!”

The session is part of an office initiative for 2014 in which professionals from around the office discuss topics ranging from general industry trends, looking in depth at ongoing and completed projects and career development.

On Saturday November 2nd, HOK Houston along with other members of the Houston design, engineering and construction community, participated in the second annual ACE Mentor Program Build it Forward event. The event was designed to raise scholarship funds for the Houston chapter of the ACE Mentor Program while giving students and their mentors an opportunity to give back to their community.

This year teams constructed convertible picnic tables that function as benches or a full size picnic table when converted. The teams built approximately 15 composite picnic tables that will be donated to local charitable organizations.

We just hosted a great group of Penn State design students who participate in a group called SEED. One of the participants reached out to me afterwards to ask for job advice and how to stand out in a crowd. I get asked this sort of thing a lot so I figured I would share here too. Please add any words of advice I forgot!

Highlight real job experience if you’ve got it. Student projects are nice but real experience will set you apart.

Take the LEED GA exam if you have the time to prepare and the money to pay for the exam. Everyone says they are into sustainability, but the credential

“Think About Presentation” – Oprah suggests that you format everything beautifully. I agree. For starters, do not EVER give your boss something that hasn’t been spell checked and read to make sure you didn’t say “panty” instead of “pantry.” She doesn’t want to see it, and she wants to …

There are many different ways to find a job opening these days. Websites such as Monster or Career Builder are a available . Checking the company’s website is a must and don’t forget word of mouth. Well how about this… new job via blog!

Dallas is looking for a Marketing Professional with 5 years experience in marketing for architects, engineers, or contractors(preferred).

Responsibilities include:

Gathers, inputs and formats information and graphics, proofreads text, assembles and binds proposals and other documents to support the Marketing department and office-wide needs.

We have entered the digital era and the use of Virtual Technology has become more acceptable and readily available. As we entered the new decade – 2010, HOK FL has been immersed in the virtual world.

Upon returning to the office after the holidays, we were finally able to experience the new ACR (Advanced Collaboration Room) also known as the “Thunder” room. The ACR is used for virtual meetings between varous locations and other HOK offices. It is a sustainable option to business travel and easily facilitates collaboration throughout the design process with the added ability to view the smiling faces of the meeting participants.

We also had our first virtual Lunch – n- Learn presentation. Usually, the rep travels in from where ever, sets up, and provides …

I recently had the opportunity to meet Jan Harmon from HOK Los Angeles. I was immediately struck by her thoughtful demeanor and kindness. She has a fantastic sense of humor and an amazing smile to match it. I’d love to kidnap her and have her around all the time! Needless to say, she has a place to stay/visit any time she’s in DC!

Last week, HOK participated in the National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA) 37th annual international conference and exhibition. As a part of the firm’s diversity initiative, HOK is partnering with organizations like NOMA to break through barriers by expanding the academic and professional horizons to a more diverse pool of individuals pursuing the field of architecture.

Attendees experienced an exciting and energizing line-up of speakers, including keynote presenter Gyo Obata, who recounted his personal journey confronting discrimination as a Japanese-American during World War II.

HOK hosted a special interactive planning and design charette benefiting South Side Day Nursery (SSDN). The exercise included visioning for a new, modern and “green” facility to …

A post from our HOK Chicago bike team captain, Agatha Wieczorek (3rd from the right), who has done a wonderful job of organizing our team:

We have 10 people on our Chicago bike team, some avid cyclists and some new riders who committed to this challenge.

Some people prefer to take streets, and we strategize about which roads have the best bike lanes and least vehicular congestion while the rest of the group enjoys their morning and evening rides along the arguably less death defying lake trail.

It’s a really great way to start and end your day. You’re not trapped on some mass transit system, sitting with strangers risking a swine flu …

If you’ve noticed my lack of blog posts in the last several months (I’m looking at you Blog Cop), I apologize. For the last 10 months or so, my wife and I have been preparing for our biggest life change thus far, and on Thursday, April 9th at 5:57 PM, Evan Tyler Sutherland came into the world, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at a healthy 8lbs., 14 oz.

As you can tell, I’m a very proud papa. However, I’m equally as proud to work for HOK, who gave me two weeks paid leave to spend with my wife and son, adjusting to this new lifestyle. One of the newest benefits in HOK’s human resources playbook, …

Last week the Toronto Studio played HOST to nine University of Detroit Mercy Architecture students. D + T.O. is an upper level design studio being conducted under the direction of Amy Green-Deines [UDMsoa] and Sinisa Simic [HOK Toronto] and a mentorship of numerous HOK professionals from all disciplines. Toronto is positioned as the HOST and Detroit as the SYMBIONT in the relationship between the two cities. As the HOST, Toronto will provide benefit & support to the research and analysis of the studio.

Students, HOK designers, and thinkers participated in the weekend event through lectures and critiques. Students were provided with a unique opportunity …

There are several upcoming career fair annoucements that have been posted to the HOK Careers Facebook page.

Check out the universities HOK plans to visit. There will be information distributed during these events — maybe even a prize giveaway! HOK people will be manning the booths to answer questions about what it’s like to work at the firm.

Keep checking back because more events will added throughout the upcoming months.

I know. I promised to try and frequently blog and post pictures from Greenbuild. I failed. Not for lack of effort. More like lack of time. Maybe next year.

As I look back on this trip, the most amazing thing about this event is the people – a people inspired by change. Everyone is cordial, welcoming and friendly. Everyone’s looking for answers to the growing questions surrounding sustainable design. Many answers are provided.

With my first trip to Greenbuild in the books, I’d like to walk you through it from my perspective as an exhibitor and not an attendee.

As a part of the firm’s ongoing recruiting efforts, we hope that prospective hires can use the site to inquire about upcoming recruiting events and pose questions to us about what it’s like to work here! It’s just another way to let the world know about us! Features on the page allow fans to discuss trends and topics using the Discussion Board, ask questions or make comments on the Wall, and keep updated about upcoming events.

If your a current HOK employee, tell your friends! Anyone who is on Facebook …

Some of you may know that I work in HOK Advance Strategies, a group of specialists within HOK. We’re a worldwide group that is embedded in HOK offices and located on-site with clients. I’m part of the Advisory group and sit in the WDC office (in the middle of the interiors group).

I and the people in my group are not your typical architects and designers (although many are trained as architects…others are MBAs, planners, landscape architects, social scientists, interior designers, etc.). The Advance Strategies “one-liner” is: As a specialized, multidisciplinary group within HOK, the world’s leading design and services firm, the specialists of HOK Advance Strategies are leaders, analysts, …

“Competition to find and keep talented staff has never been more intense. These are the employers who know what it takes to get the hiring edge.”

HOK Canada was recently ranked among the top 100 places to work in Canada by MacLean’s Magazine. Mediacorp reviewed the recruitment histories of more than 75,000 companies and invited about a third to apply for the award. Award recipients were ranked on eight key areas: physical workplace, work atmosphere; health, financial and family benefits, vacation and time-off, employee communications; performance management; training and skills, development; and community involvement.

Speaking as someone who has worked in the Toronto office for almost 10 years, I have seen …

As a part of their Summer Internship experience at HOK Chicago, seven students were encouraged foster their Sustainable Design knowledge by taking part in the 2008 Life Cycle Building Design Competition. The international competition is sponsored by West Coast green, the United States EPA, BMRA, AIA and Southface. The Competition had over 60 entries in two different categories, Building and Innovation. The HOK Chicago interns won 1st place in the Innovation Category and won the Outstanding Achievement award across all categories for the competition. They will receive free passes to this years’ West Coast Green Conference in